I want to play some mainline SMT. I've heard SMT IV is a good entry point. What do you guys think?

Compared to IV, gameplay mechanics are improved, slightly better demon designs, writing is really hit-or-miss. Kill all your friends, kid.

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Improves in everything except story

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sj isn't a good starting point, stop parroting this meme

OP here. Someone told me that strange journey was the best one but technically NOT smt, or something along those lines. what does that mean?

Why is it not?
I think some people don't consider it to be SMT because it doesn't take place in Japan. It doesn't matter though because it's officially an SMT game because of pic related

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>technically not a SMT
They are just confusing you, user. It is a SMT, but the main difference is that Strange Journey, unlike other mainline titles, is not set in Japan.

It's SMT, but it's not considered by the developers to be a mainline SMT game, which meant they were more experimental with things like setting and tone and stuff. They're a bit picky when it comes to stuff like that.

Mainline SMT games: 1, 2, Nocturne, IV, IVA
SMT side games: if..., NINE, Strange Journey
Not SMT at all: everything else

>hurr durr what is a good entry point hurr durr
Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei, don't like it? Drop it and go on in chronological order, each one is different except the gameplay, "good entry points" are subjective shit.

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Wait... NINE is mainline?
And why are there 2 pics of Nocturne? Vanilla and Maniac (the only one released in the west)? By that logic they could put a third one, where Raidou replaced Dante lol

Its a dungeon crawler more akin to SMT 1, 2 and soul hackers instead of 3d (?)
We still have EO anyways

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Maniax was a pretty massive difference from regular Nocturne, it's the same as putting SJ Redux on there along with regular SJ. The third one only replaced Dante and little else.

This user explained it.
Some games ''are SMT, but are not''. Take Digital Devil Saga, for example. In Japan, it is known as Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner, but was renamed to Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga for EU and USA.

What games have you played so far? If you played Persona 3 FES, then play SMT Nocturne. I went from P5 to P3 to Nocturne and I had a great time. Then I beat DDS1 and I'm over half way through P4.

I thought the only difference was adding Dante, and that bonus dungeon that leads us to TDE. Was somethign else added?

The bonus dungeon is nearly a fourth of the game, not to mention it's the only thing standing between you and having to grind for levels. Plus it's interwoven within the main story, with fiend battles being basically mandatory along with the first encounter with Dante being a mandatory fight.

Thanks for explaining. But isn't the fight with Matador only mandatory fiend fight? I think that in every other fiend fight you have the option to wait (for a fiend) or escape. Or maybe if you miss one (like Daisojou) other fiends won't attack you. Maybe I'm wrong.

Also, can you guys redpill me on Kyuuyaku? I saw few gameplay videos. Looks like a decent dungeon crawler. Main character doesn't use magic, right? Because I didn't see MP near his name.

The first Megami Tensei is basically Wizardry with demon negotiation. They weren't even trying to hide how much of a clone it was, because the entire dev team loved Wizardry.

So it's worth playing. Thank you.

How do SMT I and II hold up today?